This site has a Book Page entry for seed catalogs as sources for obtaining seeds.  One excellent source is not listed there.  It is your own garden.  Saving seeds from your garden plants is the original way of obtaining next years crop, and in some cases, expanding the availability of plants to other areas.  Since man began to cultivate the earth for crops, he has gathered in the 'seed crop' to save over the winter to the next planting season.  Even people near to starving will hesitate to touch their 'seed crop', knowing that without it, the next year's hunger will be even worse.

My garden club visited a seed supply house in the spring, and they told us that spinach seed was very scarce this year, so I decided to let my spinach go to seed and save them.  That got me looking at what else I wanted to save seed from and now my garden and potting shed are full of seed heads from radishes, chives, leeks, onions, Epyptian onions, garlic, bunching onions, broccili raab, parsley, carrots, and whatever else starts to look like it will go to seed.  Most of these are holdovers from last year's garden.  Carrots and parsley for instance, take two years to set seed.  There was a carrot left in the carrot bed last year that came up and set flower right off, so I get seeds for next year.  The same story for the parsley.

It does take some patience to let your garden vegetables go to seed.  They become inedible and rangey looking while bolting, then you have to wait for the seeds to mature on the plant and watch for the optimum time to harvest them.  It does ad a bit of variety to the garden chore list, but a rather nice 'chore'.

The optimum time for harvesting seeds is after they have had time to fully mature on the plant and begin to look like they will fall off if you don't pick them.  It is best to harvest on a very dry day.  Have a container with no holes or creases in it to put them in, and set them in the shed or other dark, cool place to dry out.  Label them when you gather them.

The aroma of all your plants and seeds drying in the shed is a nice benefit for all your trouble.  This year I purchased some seeds thru 4seasongreenhouse.com.  I also had some seeds I saved from last years pea and bean crop.  Those crops are growing very well right now, and I will save more seed from them this year.  Eventually, as you save more of your own seeds, you will only need to purchase or trade seeds when you want a new variety.

Lettuces are easy to save seeds from also.  I let the arugula bolt to set seed.  I noticed the darling little yellow flowers on arugula only last one day.

I can look at most seeds and tell what they are, especially the flower seeds, but the onion family is very hard to differentiate between.  Chives, leeks, bunching onion, bulb onions all have tiny black seeds about the same size.  Be careful to label your seeds as soon as you gather them from the plant.

Flowers and herbs are easy to gather from.  You may not need or want more seed from some of your plants, but if they have already bolted, gather their seeds for posterity.  You can always give them away or trade for some new-to-you seeds.

I always say "Fresh is Best" when it comes to eating, and that applies to seeds for and from your garden as well.

Garden Becky